THE GOATSUCKEES. 
37 
who come back again to earth, unable to rest for crimes 
done in their days of nature \^ or they are sent expressly to 
haunt hard-hearted masters, and punish them for cruelty to 
their slaves. Should the large species cry near the door of the 
white man, evil must be at hand ; and should the Indian^s hut 
be visited by the sound, misfortune is deemed not far off. 
In Australia there are four species of a genus of this family, 
called Podargus, The beak is much stouter than in the 
other goatsuckers ; there are no membranes between the toes, 
and the middle claw wants the curious pectinated appendage, 
Mr. Gould has figured and described, in his great work 
on the birds of Australia, these four species; and from 
his account of one of them, the P. Immeralisy the follow- 
ing passages are derived. This bird, like its congeners, i ' 
strictly nocturnal, sleeping during the day, in an upright 
position across the dead branch of a tree. So closely does 
it resemble in colour the object on which it is seated, 
that it requires a practised eye to distinguish tlie grey and 
brown mottled bird, from the brown and grey bark on which 
it rests. " So lethargic,^^ says Mr. Gould, are its slum- 
bers that it is almost impossible to arouse it, and I have 
frequently shot one without disturbing its mate sitting close 
by; it may also be knocked off with sticks or stones, and 
